Cannes 2025: Tom Cruise's 'Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning' is as Flawed as it is Fabulous
'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning' might not save cinema, but Tom Cruise will risk death trying. And there is something noble about that.
Over the course of nearly three hours, Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning goes from dull and ponderous to exhilarating and emotional and back again so seamlessly that when it finishes, you’re exhausted but also inspired and grateful that a 62-two-year superstar is willing to hang off the side of a flying plane just to entertain you. This film might not save cinema, but Tom Cruise will risk death trying. And there is something noble about that.
Once again, as agent Ethan Hunt, Cruise is saving the world. Early in this film, we are told, truth is vanishing, war is coming. An artificial intelligence called the Entity has taken control of the internet and of nuclear sites around the world (including India). The fate of every single person on the planet depends on Hunt (enabled by his trusty team) being able to lock two devices together, which will somehow disable the Entity (these look so basic that I wondered if the Entity is as intelligent as everyone thinks it is).
But we don’t go to Mission Impossible movies for plausible plots. We go for the adrenalin high of Cruise in maximalist mode and the superstar doesn’t falter. He is relentless - in air, in water (the extended deep-sea sequence is a beauty), on ground and in vehicles of every kind – biplanes, submarines, aircraft carriers. We see him fight in his underwear and sprint like a road runner. His conviction, commitment and charisma remain industrial strength. Director Christopher McQuarrie also inserts glimpses from the MI pantheon — this is the eighth and final film (perhaps). These visuals from over three decades of the franchise will make you consider with awe the way Cruise has aged — he’s a movie monolith, who has gained stature and wisdom but also, somehow, remained impossibly optimistic and ferocious.
What’s less beguiling is the reams of exposition, the unnecessary solemnity and the mind numbing conversations about the gravity of the situation (remember it’s the fate of every single person!). The film is so weighed down by this that there are long stretches in which it simply forgets to be fun. Which in a Mission Impossible film is a criminal offense.
Go in expecting all of it. Mission: Impossible— The Final Reckoning is as flawed as it is fabulous. Which is an intriguing enough combination to make it worth watching.